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Prologue3,319 words
Chapter 1, Part 1: First Steps6,297 words
Chapter 1 Part 2: Why is this mountain covered in spikes?4,743 words

Chapter 1 Part 2: Why is this mountain covered in spikes?

After climbing the wall and passing through another invisible barrier, Twilight took a moment to look around the next step of her journey.

The ground was now a mixture of frozen ground and rock, a sign that there may have once been a stone building or sidewalk nearby. Up above hung a stoplight like she often saw on her trips to Manehattan, surrounded by nothing but a few random wires here and there. It looked rather lonely just hanging there, swaying in the chilly breeze. And just like the city she was quickly approaching, it was…dead. Broken, powerless, left abandoned in the cold snow.

Twilight found herself standing there, staring at the light. What could have happened to this city that would cause it to be abandoned? Was it built before the mountain had developed its strange properties, thus forcing their residents to flee as they lost their magic? Did the residents ever come back, looking sadly at the remains of their once happy homes?

She knew what that was like, on both counts…

No, don’t think about that now, she thought, shaking her head forcefully. Worry about the climb. Focus on moving forward.

She quickly began looking around again to distract herself. Aside from the broken stoplight, there were a few floating platforms that looked to have a mix of snow and metal girders that Twilight would need to climb to progress. Thankfully, a quick hop and dash got her to the side of one of these platforms, then it was a simple matter of climbing up the metal to the top of the platform.

There was a sign there with an unusual symbol inside a red circle that made Twilight pause. It looked almost like the ancient Equestrian symbol for ‘caution.’ However, the curves were a bit too sharp and the lines too short, making her think that it was a symbol from a different language, one possibly descended from ancient Equestrian, but not the same.

But if that was the case, then how old was this sign?

Twilight wasn’t sure, but she copied it into her journal anyways. Maybe Celestia would know what it meant. She had climbed the mountain in the past and was really knowledgeable about it, after all.

Even if she sent Discord to stop Tirek—NO, stop it. Worry about the—what?!

In her wild search to find a new distraction, Twilight caught sight of another Strawberry.

One that would be a HUGE pain to get to.

Of for—really? I know Celestia said the Strawberries might be in dangerous places, but directly over a pit of spikes? Really?

Sure enough, there was a Strawberry floating a good way in front of her, directly over another pit of somehow perfectly pristine spikes and partly blocked by another floating platform.

Ugh…Great. Just great. If I want that Strawberry, I’ll need to find a way to get it without being stabbed by a bunch of spikes!

Ugh, ok, just think, Twilight. How can you get there safely?

I can’t dash under the platform. If I did, I would hit the Strawberry, but then I would have no way to avoid the spikes. But what if I drop down on it from above? Twilight thought, looking at the next platform she would need to climb. It did look to be much closer to the Strawberry, so maybe…

One short climb later, and she was now looking down at the Strawberry. Dropping down on it and then dashing up COULD work, but she needed to be careful. This platform had a small ledge sticking out of it, so if she mistimed her dash, she would end up stuck below it with no way back up. And then it would only be a matter of time until her boots stopped helping her stay up. Was one Strawberry worth it?

Celestia had told her to be careful, but Twilight knew that both she and Luna had managed to collect every Strawberry they came across during a number of their climbs, so surely she could try to do the same as well, right? After all, if the other princesses could do it, then she should be able to do it too.

Even if that ‘it’ was jumping down towards a pit of spikes just to grab a piece of delicious magical fruit and one wrong move would mean she had no way back up and—

No, stay calm. Take a deep breath.

Twilight brought her hoof to her chest, practicing the breathing technique Cadence. Even through her heavy coat, she could feel the gentle humming of the pendant Celestia had given her. As her hoof touched the pendant, the vibrations became more acute, sending a calming energy through her whole being as she slowly breathed out.

Even if she messed this up, she was still wearing the pendant. It would protect her from anything the mountain threw at her. It would keep her safe, no matter what.

She knew it would…

A few days prior…

“This is the final, and the most important, tool I can give you,” Celestia said, holding out a small pendant.

“What it is?” Twilight asked, taking the offered pendant in her hooves. It was a perfectly round ruby, held in place with a thin golden wire and engraved with an image of a mountain that looked almost like the picture on Celestia’s postcard. Was it a souvenir too? No, if it was just a souvenir, why would Celestia call it a tool?

The pendant didn’t look all that special—and it actually looked a bit barebones if she was being honest—though that might just be because she was so used to all of Rarity’s large, fancy jewelry. She couldn’t feel any enchantments on the pendant either, though given what Celestia had told Twilight about how the mountain affects magic, Twilight wasn’t sure that any enchantments would hold up either way.

“That is what is called a reset amulet,” Celestia said, her voice taking on the tone of a seasoned lecturer. “While you won’t find any trace of magic on it right now, once you get closer to the mountain, its power will activate. I did not make this amulet, and currently no pony knows how to make them. However, they can be found scattered across the mountain, and they have one purpose as far as we can tell: to make sure no pony else dies during their climb.”

“What?” Twilight asked, her mind skipping a moment as she processed what Celestia was saying. If this mountain was so strange, it would make sense that a few ponies might not survive the climb, but for Celestia to put it so bluntly...

Was she trying to instill just how vital this pendant was onto Twilight?

“Long, long ago, many ponies had tried to climb the mountain,” Celestia explained somberly. “Many failed and simply turned around. Others, however, continued on and perished during the journey. By the time I was ready to make my attempt, these amulets had been discovered in an ancient temple most of the way up the mountain, at which point they began to appear all along the trail. And it is only because of that particular amulet that I was able to complete my journey.”

Twilight could feel her eyes widening, her gaze falling to the simple gem in her hoof.

She used this very amulet to climb the mountain? she thought, her mind caught in a mix of giddy glee at holding such a relic in her hoof and anxiety that she had to keep this amulet safe, no matter what.

“You see, Twilight, so long as you wear this amulet on the mountain, you cannot be hurt,” Celestia continued. “If you fall from a high place, if you are buried under an avalanche or a collapse of a rocky ridge, if you are attacked by some dangerous creature, this amulet will ‘reset’ you, in a sense. It will move you a short way back down the mountain, allowing you to try and continue your climb without any injuries. It is a…disorienting experience, to say the least, but it will protect you. No matter how severe the threat.”

“Wow,” Twilight gasped, her inner scientist squealing at the idea of such a remarkable spell contained in such a seemingly normal gem. Something capable of protecting ponies no matter what. How many lives could be saved if somepony managed to crack this spell and apply it to other objects away from the mountain? “And you don’t know how it works?”

“No,” Celestia said with a small shake of the head. “It only works in proximity to the mountain, and because of the distorting field, no pony or technology currently available has the potential to analyze them while they are active, so how they work remains a mystery. All that we know for certain is that they protect anyone wearing them during the climb. As far as we are aware, no pony with a reset amulet has died on the mountain, despite the danger they may have faced. As such, please be sure to wear that amulet at all times during your climb.”

Twilight did her best to give a reassuring smile.

“Of course, princess,” she said, gently placing the amulet around her neck. “I promise I won’t take it off during my climb.”

Celestia relaxed a little, giving Twilight a nod of thanks.

Back in the present…

“Ok, here I GO!” Twilight practically squealed, jumping off the ledge and aiming for the Strawberry. The fall was short, but her nerves made it feel so much longer. One wrong move and—

Ting.

WOOSH!

“Gah! I…I did it!” Twilight gasped, her boots glowing as she clung to the side of the ledge. Her back hooves had just barely reached the ledge alongside her, and there, floating next to her was the Strawberry, almost seeming to happily follow her as she climbed back up. The moment her hooves were on flat solid ground, the Strawberry vanished with a small pop, and the small twitch in her side bag let Twilight know that it was safely stored away.

She made sure to write a quick note on the hovering/teleporting Strawberry in her notebook on a new page, before climbing up the metal girders and past another invisible barrier.

It still felt so unusual to pass through, but at least it wasn’t unpleasant. Unlike Tirek—

No.

Don’t do that.

Just focus on the next area.

You’re FINE.

Said next area was…interesting. Aside from being mostly just a large drop-off, there were spikes right near the entrance, both embedded in the snowy wall to her left and on the platform of metal and dirt to her right. Though what caught her attention most was the second platform, which was about ninety percent metal with barely any parts of the mountain attached to it.

Interesting. So it’s not just parts of the mountain that are affected by this strange levitation magic. Can the magic making things float affect any stationary object? Or were the pieces of metal so old that the magic just considered them to be a part of the mountain by now? Can it make trees and bushes float as well, or does it only affect non-living things? The Strawberries are definitely in a class of their own, but it will be interesting to see how the magic affects other objects up the mountain.

She jotted down all those questions and notes in her book, just in case.

I have so much to talk to Celestia about already!

Thankfully, despite the spikes on both sides, her dash was strong enough to launch her over them, allowing her to grab the metal of the platform and pull herself up. And what she saw made her pause.

Aside from another random stoplight, the only other thing near the platform was a mechanical box of sorts on a conveyer belt that was too thin to stand on. The edges were see-through, allowing Twilight to see the complex set of gears inside it that were slowly turning despite their obvious age. Even more bizarrely, there was a set of traffic lights attached to each side, including the top. And like with the gears moving, the red light was steadily glowing, implying that the device was still powered somehow.

Well, that was curious…and suspicious.

The gears and lights had to be powered somehow, yet Twilight couldn’t see any wires or other external power sources connecting to the large box. There was a chance that the gears had an internal power source, but given their age, that seemed unlikely. Unless the mountain’s magic was powering the box somehow? And if the gears were drawing magic from the mountain, why did the city become abandoned if the residents could draw power from the mountain itself? Could something else have caused everypony to flee?

And yet, Twilight couldn’t shake her suspicions either. The only way forward was impossible to reach from her platform, and between the set of spikes she could see at the end of the conveyer belt and the fresh memory of the hidden spring that nearly sent her face-first into some earlier, she was very hesitant to trust a seemingly random and potentially magic-powered box.

At least I don’t think it will steal my magic or cutie mark—No!

Stop thinking about that!

Stop!

Twilight groaned and shook her head, focusing back on the box.

“Looks like I don’t have a choice. If you explode or send me flying in a random direction, I’m going to be upset,” she muttered, glaring at the box as fiercely as she could, trying to ignore how a perfectly timed snowflake landing on her nose ruined it.

Well, the box wasn’t responding anyways, so upon taking a deep breath and bracing herself, Twilight jumped onto it.

BRRRIINNN!

"EEEEEKKKKK!” Twilight screamed as the light turned green and the box went shooting along the track! On instinct, she activated the boots, allowing her to hang on for dear life as the box came to a jarring stop right at the end of the conveyer belt, only a hoof or two away from the spikes.

I knew it! I knew this wasn’t just some random box! Twilight screamed to herself as she tried not to collapse in shock, her heart pounding hard against her ribs and her legs trembling from the burst of adrenaline. She was so focused on trying to get her heart back under control that she nearly missed another large click. The lights on the box turned yellow before it jolted and slowly started to pull away from the edge.

Twilight almost jumped off on impulse, but a second later, she thought better of it. Her heartbeat had slowed, but her legs were still shaking badly, and she didn’t trust her jumping skills at the moment. So she sat back and took some deep breaths to relax. It was almost good that the box went so slowly, because it seemed to take forever to calm down.

That had been happening a lot lately.

Thankfully, she managed to stop the shaking by the time the box had nearly returned to its original position allowing her to shakily jump off it and back onto the previous platform. Then, the moment she was back on solid ground, she let out a small scream of annoyance and angrily pulled out her journal.

Why are there ancient boxes that go flying forward whenever somepony steps on them!? Twilight angrily scribbled, the tingling of the adrenaline in her body fueling her frustration. She just wanted to get up and pace, to kick the nearby snow and burn off the energy that still demanded her body move or fight. But she knew that wouldn’t accomplish anything, so instead she tried to take a minute to finish recentering herself.

When that wasn’t quite enough, she drew a quick sketch of the contraption and drew a bunch of question marks next to it. Seriously, what possible purpose could those contraptions have served in the past? Aside from potential lawsuits, I’m sure. She took a deep breath, held it, then let it out of her nose. Clearly hidden springs weren’t going to be the only contraptions she would encounter on this mountain. She just…needed to be careful, learn what each device did, and use them as needed to progress.

Simple.

Just keep a note of what device does what and remember to ask Celestia about them when I get back to Canterlot. Hopefully I won’t run into anything too dangerous that I need to rely on to move forward.

With the tingle of adrenaline virtually gone now, Twilight took a moment to mentally brace herself for another ride, then jumped back onto the box. And sure enough, the moment her hooves hit the reset box, another click was heard, and the box let out its cheery note as it went shooting forward again, stopping at the same place. Suppressing a shiver as her adrenaline spiked again, if only slightly, Twilight took the opportunity to jump off this time and climb up past another barrier.

Upon landing on solid ground again, she looked around at the next part of her journey. And immediately, she felt her train of thought crash as she beheld something so bizarre, she wasn’t even sure how to classify it.

Up above her was another Strawberry. However, unlike the last ones, this one appeared to have a fully functioning pair of white pegasus wings. The wings were gently flapping, making the Strawberry gently bob up and down in the air as snow continued to drift around it. Below it was a metal platform sticking up out of the ground, but what caught Twilight’s attention were the two signs.

Unlike all the previous signs with their indecipherable language, the first sign appeared to show a pony…dashing? Twilight had to do a double take, but that’s what it was: a picture of a pony blurring through the air, and while she didn’t necessarily know what she looked like when she dashed, the image was, somehow, a perfect representation of how she felt when she dashed. A perfect image of the world blurring past her almost faster than she could comprehend, yet with her in full control the entire time.

The sign also had a red circle around the outer edge, and a diagonal red line drawn directly through the image of the dashing pony. Meanwhile, the second sign had a similar crossed out circle, but smaller, and had a single large arrow pointing directly at the Strawberry itself.

Despite the strangeness of such a set of signs existing, something that still managed to surprise her despite all the crazy things that had already happened along her journey so far, she could understand the message easily enough.

No dashing. It says I need to get to the Strawberry without dashing. But how would it even know I CAN dash? Do other ponies, or other creatures for that manner, develop a dash ability while on the mountain too? Is that why there is a sign here? But why is this sign HERE, directly below where a specific Strawberry? I thought the path, and by extension the Strawberry placements, was different for every creature who climbs the mountain. Is it just really dumb luck, or is this related to what Celestia said about the path changing? Can the mountain change even small things like sign placements?

It was a good thing that she hadn’t put her book away yet, as a quick sketch of the Strawberry with wings, the rule that she apparently wasn’t allowed to dash when one was around, and her questions about how the path changed were all added to her notes before she put it away and began to look for a way up.

The Strawberry was way too high for her to reach, even if she did dash, and the large floating chunk of ground nearby had too many overhangs for her to climb unless she dashed. With no way directly up, Twilight began to walk around in search of a potential path. Thankfully, she soon found a way to progress on the other side of the floating chunk of ground.

There, floating above the steep drop, were four sections of cobblestone road floating in midair. Each piece was higher than the last, forming a perfect set of steps from which Twilight could jump and reach the top of the large chunk of earth above her.

However, they looked pretty unstable, and given what had happened on the bridge back near Second Sight’s house, she was very hesitant to step on something that would likely crumble away beneath her and send her falling down the mountain. Even as she tried to suppress a shudder at the memory of the bridge, a small bit of rock tumbled off one of the steps, as though it was taunting her.

But then, as if time itself had decided to take a vacation, that little rock floated back up in the exact path it had fallen down and nestled right back into place on the step, as though it had never fallen in the first place.

What? How? HUH?

Twilight could only stare in wonder at the step, her curiosity taking over and a thousand questions flooded her mind. Her eyes quickly tracing the steps to see if the phenomenon repeated. Sure enough, even as more stones fell away from the steps, they continued to float back into place, ensuring that the platforms were forever hanging there in mid-air.

Is this some sort of stable time loop? A self-repairing spell? Some sort of preservations spell that had gone funky as a result of the mountain’s magic interfering with the makeup of the mana flow and spell matrices?!

Whether the truth was one of those theories or something else entirely, THIS was certainly the weirdest thing she had seen so far, and that was saying something. So weird that she spent at least ten minutes writing down every note she could think of and all of her questions. She could probably do a full research paper on this phenomenon alone!

But it wasn’t until she wrote down seems to be undisturbed by nature around it that Twilight realized she’d actually have to climb the steps in order to proceed. She gulped hard and jotted down the last of her notes, trying to prepare herself. Given the shooting platform and the spring she had already encountered, she just knew that something funny was going to happen the moment she touched those platforms and interfered with whatever magic was keeping them in this strange loop. Even the fact that this wasn’t mechanical like the spring or the box wasn’t reassuring. And she also knew that she really didn’t have any choice but to jump up as there was no other way to get that Strawberry.

And she really wanted to get it, if only to prove that she could collect all of them in one go like Celestia and Luna did. Although, getting to see what would happen to those wings it had when she touched it would be a bonus.

I know Celestia said that part of the fun of climbing the mountain was experiencing all it had to offer, but I am really starting to wish she had at least given me a guide of how certain obstacles would react, she thought, shaking her head. Come to think of it, there were a LOT of times when Celestia had sent Twilight off without giving her all of the knowledge that would have let her succeed with ease. Nightmare Moon, the Gala, Discord, the Crystal Empire, Tir—

That’s not important right now…Twilight thought, taking a deep breath. Celestia likely hadn’t told Twilight absolutely everything as a way to let her solve the problems she faced on her own. After all, where was the accomplishment in completing a task if you knew exactly how to do it before you even tried? And it was because she was unprepared that she was able to bond with the girls during the Nightmare Moon incident in the first place.

Nothing unites ponies faster than a common goal that no pony can solve on their own.

And with that thought, Twilight planned her route, then leapt towards the first bit of stone street. Almost immediately, the entire platform began to crumble away, forcing her to leap towards the next one. Thankfully, a few more rapid jumps and she was clinging to the side of the large floating block, easily able to climb the rest of the way up.

“Well, that wasn’t too bad,” Twilight said to herself, peeking back down at the platforms. Sure enough, the three she had stepped on had already begun to reform only a few seconds after crumbling away, once again leaving a pathway back up. “At least, not as bad as that spring and moving platform.”

Or the bridge…

Twilight felt a shiver pass down her spine as her anxiety tried to return, but she stomped down on it, pushing it back down and reminding herself that she just had to keep moving forward. That she just had to keep breathing. She just had to finish climbing the mountain, then everything else in her life would be easier by comparison.

With that thought in mind, she moved over to the other side of the large chunk of earth to look down at the Strawberry.

The fruit was still just sitting there, hovering gently in place as though that wasn’t a complete distortion of the laws of physics. And as much as Twilight wanted to just jump down and grab it, she saw something that made her pause.

Directly above the Strawberry was a small hole, one just big enough for said berry to fly through if it wanted to. It was also almost perfectly smooth, too smooth to have formed naturally. Did that mean that the Strawberry would try to fly into that hole if she dashed? Was that what the sign was warning her about? If so, would it fly straight up no matter what, or would it try to fly around her if she was above it? Given its position below the hole, it seemed like it would be the former, but…

Was it worth the risk to see which scenario was correct? If she was wrong, she could lose the Strawberry. But if she was right, she would know how the Strawberries would behave for future encounters and could plan around their behavior.

After a bit of pondering, Twilight decided it was worth the risk. The more she could learn about the flying Strawberries, the easier future collections could be. She took one more deep breath and jumped off the platform, dashing so that she ended up directly above where the Strawberry was hovering. Her head came within inches of touching the hole, and the Strawberry almost seemed to laugh before flying directly upwards towards it at a speed Twilight would have never been able to catch on her own.

Thankfully, the Strawberry made no effort to avoid her, flying directly at Twilight until it touched her hoof. The moment it did, the wings disappeared in a puff of white light and feathers. Twilight fell back down to the start of the area, the now wingless Strawberry gently following her before vanishing into her bag the moment her hooves touched the ground. The boots did their job as well, glowing slightly as she landed to reduce the shock of impact to her legs.

So, if I dash when a winged Strawberry is nearby, it will fly directly upwards to try and escape. Good to know, she thought, taking a minute to write down her latest discoveries. Still, flying Strawberries? Moving platforms? Spikes!? I’ve barely even started my climb and already this mountain is nothing like I expected.

She took a moment to flip back through the book. She already had at least five pages filled with questions, and she had barely started! She sighed as she put the book away. I hope the rest of the climb doesn’t throw TOO many curveballs my way, or I might not have enough pages in the book to write down everything.

And with that, she made her way back up the stone platforms and up towards the next part of her journey.
Harmony knows I’ve had enough anxiety lately…

Author's Note:

Well, this took a lot longer than I thought it would. The delay was mostly just lacking motivation for writing this one story for some reason, but I gotta say this one was pretty fun to work on again. Hopefully I will be able to write more short little chapters for it soon to help tide everyone over between my bigger chapter releases.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to join my discord server for more discussions and updates on my chapters being released.

Discord Server: https://discord.gg/Wt3HqMRrk4

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